The Chicago White Sox closed out their four-game series with the Minnesota Twins on Sunday with an 11 – 0 victory. They won three of four in the series and have set themselves up for a solid second half heading into the All-Star break.
The first few innings saw no scoring as it was mostly a pitcher’s duel with Dylan Cease and Minnesota’s Chris Archer playing some great baseball.
Scoring finally started off in the top of the fifth as shortstop Tim Anderson smacked a single to right field which brought in Seby Zavala and Adam Engel.
That put the Sox up 2-0. Archer started to slowly break down about that time which may be part of the reason why the Sox had success. The Twins took Archer out shortly after that and went to their bullpen.
The scoring continued in the fifth as Andrew Vaughn came in and drove in Anderson and Yoan Moncada to make it 4-0. All this scoring came with two outs.
The next few innings were quiet until the top of the seventh inning when Moncada blasted a home run to center field to bring himself and Engel in and make it 6-0. Vaughn took the plate next and hit a home run of his own to make it 7-0 with one out in the seventh inning.
Second baseman Josh Harrison hit a home run to bring himself and two other runners in to make it 10-0 with their third home run of the inning. The Sox were eating up Twins pitching and there was seemingly nothing they could do about it.
The White Sox would go up 11 – 0 when Engel hit a single that allowed Leury Garcia to score in the top of the 9th. That would be the last score of the game.
The Chicago White Sox earned a huge series win over the Minnesota Twins.
The White Sox defense, along with their pitching staff, earned a one-hitter on the day which was the Sox’s first of the season. Cease managed to pitch seven innings of ball and allowed just one hit. He struck out eight batters while only walking two.
Cease was masterful on the day and still leaves us wondering why he isn’t an All-Star. Something is seriously wrong with the process. Against the Twins on Sunday, he showed that he is one of the best pitchers in the league and deserves a spot in the midsummer classic.
The Chicago White Sox will head into the All-Star break at .500 and hopefully, the guys will get some rest to help them prepare for the second half of the season. They looked good against the Twins so we can only hope that this will carry over into the second half and they will end up taking the AL Central.